a b s t r a c t The determination of the in situ emission rate of pollution sources can often not be done directly. In the absence of emission measurements, the emission rate of the source can be assessed by an inverse dispersion technique using ambient concentration measurements and meteorological parameters as input. The dispersion model used is the Austrian regulatory Gaussian model. The method is applied to a thermal waste recycling plant. Seven chemical species (butyl acetate, benzene, ethyl acetate, toluene, m/p-xylene, o-xylene and a-pinene), are identified as odorants and measured over a period of 1½ years in the prevailing wind direction leeward of the plant. The overall odour emission rate is calculated by adding the odour emission rate of all single species, using the individual odour threshold concentration. The estimated odour emission rates range between 206 and 8950 OU s À1 , caused by the wide variety of the odour thresholds of the seven species. The higher value is in the upper range of odour emission rates of modern thermal treatment plants for waste.